Kuhnian Perspective on Accounting Science: the emergence of the paradigm to the period of crisis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.16930/2237-766220202985Keywords:
Science, Paradigm, Kuhn, Conceptual framework, Big Data.Abstract
The work aims to discuss accounting science from the point of view of Kuhnian theory. The study fits as a theoretical essay, in which, based on bibliographic research, to expose ideas and reflect on concepts. To this end, a brief historical context is presented to the reader on the development of accounting knowledge, showing the transformations that this field of study has undergone and its search for maturity as a science, whether normative or positive. The characteristics of the Kuhnian scientific process are also analyzed, addressing the phases of the formation of a science and its paradigms. Thus, a Kuhnian structure for accounting science is proposed, focusing on the 20th and 21st centuries, framing the work A Statement of Basic Accounting Theory (AAA, 1966) as the starting point of the (new) scientific accounting period. Still, aspects related to conceptual frameworks were analyzed, pointing out criticisms to the current framework. Finally, it is maintained that accounting is experiencing a period of crisis as a science, as its paradigm would be in “check” by no longer offering solutions to emerging issues in the field, opening up the opportunity for a new technology-based accounting paradigm. As a suggestion for future research, a multidisciplinary approach to accounting is indicated with the introduction of Big Data techniques in the production of accounting knowledge.References
Accounting Principles Board (1970). Statement of the Accounting Principles Board 4: Basic Concepts and Accounting Principles Underlying Financial Statements of Business Enterprises (APB nº 4). American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
American Accounting Association (AAA) (1966). Statement of Basic Accounting Theory - ASOBAT. Florida.
American Accounting Association (2018). Celebration of the Century! Recuperado em 25 outubro, 2018, de http://www2.aaahq.org/AM/timeline/timeline.html
American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) (2012). Evolution of the profession. Recuperado em 01 setembro, 2018 de https://www.aicpa.org/about.html
Ball, R., & Brown, P. (1968). An empirical evaluation of accounting income numbers. Journal of Accounting Research, 6(2), 159-178. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2490232
Barker, R., & Teixeira, A. (2018). Gaps in the IFRS Conceptual Framework. Accounting in Europe, 15(2), 153-166. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17449480.2018.1476771
Basu, S. (2012). How Can Accounting Researchers Become More Innovative? Accounting Horizons, 26(4), 851-870. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2308/acch-10311
Beaver, W. H. (1968). The information content of annual earnings announcements. Journal of Accounting Research, 6(suplemento), 67-92. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2490070
Beaver, W. H. (1981). Financial reporting: An accounting revolution. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bhimani, A., & Willcocks, L. (2014). Digitisation, ‘Bigdata’ and the transformation of accounting information. Accounting and Business Research, 44(4), 469-490. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.2014.910051
Cabral, I., Siqueira, J. R. M., & Siqueira-Batista, R. (2011). O diálogo das ciências contábeis com as ciências humanas e demais ciências sociais: uma análise da produção acadêmica do congresso USP de controladoria e contabilidade e ENANPAD (2004-2007). Revista de Educação e Pesquisa em Contabilidade, 5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17524/repec.v5i0.162
Chalmers, A. F. (1993). O que é ciência afinal? (2a ed. Tradução de Raul Filker). Editora Brasiliense.
Christenson, C. (1983). The methodology of positive accounting. The Accounting Review, 1-22.
Chua, W. F. (1996). Teaching and learning only the language of numbers – monolingualism in a multilingual world. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 7(1), 129-156. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1006/cpac.1996.0019
Cushing, B. (1989). A kuhnian interpretation of the historical evolution of accounting. The Accounting Historians Journal, 16(2), 1-41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2308/0148-4184.16.2.1
Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) (2010). Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 8. USA.
Gamage, P. (2016). New development: Leveraging ‘big data’ analytics in the public sector. Public Money & Management, 36(5), 385-390. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2016.1194087
Gepp, A., Linnenluecke, M., O’Neill, T., & Smith, T. (2018). Big data techniques in auditing research and practice: current trends and future opportunities. Journal of Accounting Literature, 40, 102-115. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acclit.2017.05.003
Gleeson-White, J. (2012). Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance. W. W. Norton & Company. Nova Iorque.
Gornik-Tomaszewski, S. & Choi, Y. C. (2018). The Conceptual Framework: Past, Present, and Future. Review of Business: Interdisciplinary Journal on Risk and Society, 38(1), 47-58.
Hartmann, F. G. H. (2017). Accounting research: between natural science and practice. Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, 28(73), 7-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/1808-057x201790160
Hopwood, A. (2007). Whither Accounting Research? The Accounting Review, 82(5), 1365-1374. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2308/accr.2007.82.5.1365
International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) (2010). Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting. Londres, UK.
International Accounting Standards Board (2018). Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting. Londres, UK.
Iudicibus, S. de (2007). Ensaio sobre algumas raízes profundas da contabilidade, em apoio aos princípios fundamentais. RCO - Revista de Contabilidade e Organizações, 1(1), 8-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11606/rco.v1i1.34693
Kam, V. (1990). Accounting Theory (2a ed.). John Wiley & Sons Inc. New York.
Khurana, R., Kimura, K., & Fourcade, M. (2011). How Foundations Think: The Ford Foundation as a Dominating Institution in the Field of American Business Schools. Working paper, Harvard Business School. Recuperado em 11 agosto, 2019, de https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/11-070.pdf
Kuhn, T. S. (1962). A estrutura das revoluções científicas (9a ed., Tradução: Beatriz Vianna Boeira e Nelson Boeira). São Paulo: Perspectiva.
Major, M. J. (2017). O positivismo e a pesquisa ‘alternativa’ em Contabilidade. Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, 28(74), 173-178. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/1808-057x201790190
Moser, D. (2012). Is Accounting Research Stagnant? Accounting Horizons, 26(4), 845-850. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2308/acch-10312
Mouck, T. (1993). The “Revolution” in Financial Reporting Theory: a Kuhnian Interpretation. The Accounting Historians Journal, 20(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.2308/0148-4184.20.1.33
Pierson, F. C. (1959). The Education of American Businessmen. The Journal of Business Education, 35(3), 114-117. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.1959.10116244
Ribeiro, H. C. M. (2014). Dezoito anos de produção acadêmica do campo do conhecimento contabilidade sob a ótica dos periódicos internacionais the international journal of accounting e the british accounting review/eighteen year academic production field of knowledge accounting. RACE - Revista de Administração, Contabilidade e Economia, 13(3), 1211-1240.
Rikhardsson, P., & Yigitbasioglu, O. (2018). Business intelligence & analytics in management accounting research: Status and future focus. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 29(C), 37-58. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accinf.2018.03.001
Sá, A. L. de (2005). Doutrinas, escolas e novas razões de entendimentos na Ciência Contábil. Revista Catarinense de Ciência Contábil, 4(10), 25-34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16930/2237-7662/rccc.v4n10p25-34
Santos, T., & Costa, F. (2018). Discussão Paradigmática em Contabilidade Gerencial: Uma Crítica à Interpretação Kuhniana na Academia Contábil. Anais do Congresso Anpcont, João Pessoa, PB, 2018, 12.
Segars, A. (2018). Seven Technologies Remaking the World. MIT Sloan Management Review, 1-19.
Silva, J. P., Niyama, J. K., & Noriller, R. M. (2018). Teoria da Contabilidade: Reflexões Sobre os 55 Anos de Positivismo. Revista FSA (Faculdade Santo Agostinho), 15, 27-47. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12819/2018.15.2.2
Souza, J. C., & Beuren, I. M. (2008). A inserção da teoria das revoluções científicas de Thomas Samuel Kuhn em artigos da área contábil. Anais do Congresso Brasileiro de Custos, Curitiba, PR, Brasil.
Vieira, J. G. S., & Fernandez, R. G. (2006). A estrutura das revoluções científicas na economia e a Revolução Keynesiana. Estudos Econômicos, 36(2), 355-381. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0101-41612006000200007
Watts, R. L., & Zimmerman, J. L. (1986). Positive Accounting Theory. Prentice-Hall. New Jersey.
Whitley, R. (1986). The Transformation of Business Finance into Financial Economics: The Roles of Academic Expansion and Changes in U.S. Capital Markets. Accouting, Organizations and Society, 11(2), 171-192. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(86)90029-2
Whitley, R. (1988). The possibility and utility of positive accounting theory. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 13(6), 631-645. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(88)90037-2
Whittington, G. (1987). Positive accounting: A review article. Accounting and business research, 17(68), 327-336. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.1987.9729816
Williams, P. F. (2017). Jumping on the wrong bus: Reflections on a long, strange journey. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 49, 76-85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2017.10.004
Wray, K. B. (2011). Kuhn and the discovery of paradigms. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 41(3), 380-397. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0048393109359778
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The copyright for articles published in this journal belongs to the author (s), with first publication rights assigned to Revista Catarinense da Ciência Contábil. Due to appearing in this publicly accessible journal, articles are free to use, with mandatory recognition of the original authorship and initial publication in this magazine and for educational and non-commercial applications. The magazine chose to use published works for non-commercial purposes, including the right to submit or work for publicly accessible databases. The content of published articles is the sole and exclusive responsibility of the authors. - The author (s) authorize (s) a publication of the article in the journal; - The author (s) guarantee (s) that a contribution is original and unpublished and that it is not being evaluated in another magazine (s); - A magazine is not responsible for the opinions, ideas and concepts emitted in the texts, for the full responsibility of the author (s); - It is reserved to the editors or the right to make textual adjustments and to adjust the article to the publication rules.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Atribuição-NãoComercial-CompartilhaIgual 4.0 Internacional.
